Super-Crafty Halloween Contest: The Sequel

Yes, it’s a bit early for Halloween. Some of you have barely taken your Christmas decorations down. But I just wanted to get everyone thinking about their 2008 entries for The Poop Super-Crafty Halloween Costume Contest.

1. The costumes can’t be store-bought. Hand-me-down crafty costumes are acceptable, as are costumes that use store-bought elements to create something original.

2. The costumes don’t have to be good. As a matter of fact, half the point is that our generation sucks at this. If you poke a couple of holes in a sheet for your kid at the last minute, you may find yourself with a prize.

3. Costumes must be worn in the vicinity of Halloween 2008. Bonus points if your kid is holding a copy of that day’s Chronicle in the photo. (Or you can take it in front of a computer with The Poop on the screen … Or find some other creative way to prove it’s current … .)

4. Send us the photo any time. You can dress your kid up now, take a picture when they wear their costume to school, or wait until Halloween. We will post some costumes early, but all the judging will take place the day after Halloween.

We’re not going to set an age limit, but we don’t want a 16-year-old kid in a monster mask on this blog any more than we want him on our front porch on Oct. 31. We’ll try to get as many costume photos on the blog.

There will be prizes, but you should definitely be doing this for the love of craftiness. (And the prizes arrive slowly. I’m still mailing out ones from our last contest.)